On July 4, New England Revolution striker Taylor Twellman scored a goal in second-half stoppage time to earn a draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy at The Home Depot Center.
A few weeks later Freddy Adu scored in second-half stoppage time to steal a win for D.C. United away from the Galaxy.
On Sunday night, again, the Galaxy were victimized by a second-half goal in injury time, and as a result fell to the Chicago Fire 2-1.
It's a disturbing trend that the defense has had to deal with of late. But it's not all on the defense's shoulders. Like so many times this season, the Galaxy outplayed their opponent, creating several more scoring chances. The Green and Gold out-shot Chicago 14-8, yet could only muster one goal from the offense.
Both trends are a cause for concern in Los Angeles, especially at this late stage in the season.
"What a disappointing way to finish the match, especially after creating so many opportunities that we should have put away," said Galaxy coach Steve Sampson after the match. "It should have easily been 2-1 at halftime. We played to win, we created enough opportunities to win, and we didn't handle the last few minutes of the game very well at all."
Sampson wasn't placing all the blame on his offense's shoulders though. With better finishing, the Galaxy never should have been in a position to lose the game; however, it doesn't change the fact that they didn't finish stronger.
"I think they have to respect the game, and they have to respect the opponent a bit more in these types of situations. Obviously we're going for the win, but you have to keep your shape and your balance in behind the ball, even when you attack," said Sampson. "Foul a player at a key time. That would have been a moment to foul someone, even at the expense of taking a yellow card. Even at the expense of taking a red card at that moment."
What Sampson was referring too was the galloping run that Justin Mapp made at the end of the game to score the game winner. The run started in the Chicago half of the field and didn't stop until the ball was in the back of the net. The run was all too reminiscent of the run Adu made through the heart of the Galaxy defense before stealing a win in that game.
Frustration was the word of the day in the Galaxy locker room after the match as players were trying to figure out an explanation to their late game failings.
"I think in those late-game situations it's frustrating because we aren't ahead. We've dominated the game, so we throw caution to the wind. It has to be dealt with," said Pete Vagenas about the late stages of not just this game, but in earlier games this season.
"One individual effort, by one individual player cost us the game tonight. (Mapp) created the first goal if I remember with a similar run from the outside coming in uncontested, and he did the same thing on the second one."
Vagenas himself could have put the Galaxy ahead in first-half stoppage time. Vagenas found himself alone in front of the goal, but couldn't keep his shot on target. It wasn't just Vagenas missing chances though. A slew of scoring chances were wasted in the second half by Hercules Gomez and Joseph Ngwenya, who either put their shots right at Chicago 'keeper Zach Thornton or off target all together.
Todd Dunivant, who has played every minute of every game this year for the Galaxy feels that the lack of offensive punch has put himself and the rest of the Galaxy defense under a bit more pressure.
"We've got to develop that killer instinct and be a little sharper in the final third. If you look at our goals against, it's pretty good to be honest," said Dunivant. "We haven't been giving up a lot of goals. When we lose that 1-0 game or 2-1 it puts a lot of pressure on us. Hopefully that turns around. There's no excuses tonight."
For things to turn around, the Galaxy is going to have to make it a team effort. It can't all fall on the shoulders of one person to take responsibility for a loss, and it will take more than one person to carry this offense on its shoulders. Meaning the Galaxy will need to find consistent scoring apart from Landon Donovan when he returns from national team duty.
With the season winding down, and MLS Cup not that far off in the distance, it seems obvious that some sort of change is needed in Los Angeles. For Dunivant, this team will have to start playing for each other to make a run in the playoffs.
"One guy gets beat and there needs to be someone there to cover for him," Dunivant said. "Everyone on this team needs to step up and say that 'I'm there for the guy next to me.' We've got to play for each other. Play for the guy next to you. Play for the guy you bleed with every day. Maybe that's the attitude change that we need to have."
Greg Daurio is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
